GABF Day 3: It’s Been Real!

Our final full day in Denver started with me and Ed heading over to the Sam’s No. 3 diner which was only a few blocks from the hotel. It’s a busy spot during GABF but we found a table in the bar. The food set me right so when Ed headed back to the hotel to rest up a bit more, I grabbed a scooter and started my day.

Denver schedules their Oktoberfest celebration to coincide with GABF so I walked through their street festival. I’m not wild about Oktoberfest beers and had just eaten so I skipped out of the turkey legs and beer steins. I tooled around town a bit more on the scooter and headed way up to the River North district to hit Great Divide’s new Barrel Bar. This is a new facility where they do most of their small batch and barrel aging brews. I had a flight of three pretty solid beers, their Flemish Brown being my favorite.

From there I headed down the street to the brewery I was the most excited about hitting, Crooked Stave. It was inside a new build, hipster community shopping sort of place called The Source. The place was super busy but I found a spot since I was rolling solo. These beers were straight up phenomenal. Nightmare on Brett, Between the Staves, L’Brett d’Apricot – literally everything I drank. I could have spent the rest of the day here if my body had been willing to stomach sours upon sours.

From there I hopped on another scooter (seriously, it’s the best way to travel through the city) and stopped at 1 Up, a video game bar not unlike Barcade back home, to play some pinball and some Area 51.

The line to get into the Friday session was insane. Last year I got a brewer’s badge from my friends at Neshaminy Creek, so this year I had to endure the wait.

When I first got in, I went over to see my buddy Lee who was pouring at the Two Roads table. They had some funky stuff with them including Urban Funk and Philsamic which were both winners. WeldWerks’ line was huge on Friday, with a ton of people willing to wait for a pour. Copper Kettle also had an impressive wait this session.

Firestone’s booth somehow eluded me on the first day, so I stopped by to run the gamut on what they brought to this year’s party. The Patrick Hayze and Feral One were both stellar. From there I was done waiting in the long lines and hit as many booths as I could for the next hour or so. A ton of big surprises from breweries like Figueroa Mountain Brewing, La Cumbre, and Sam Adams.

With another few hundred Untappd check-ins and a low battery, I figured it was time to call it. I headed out to the street and spotted my buddy Lee on his way out too. “Where you headed?” I asked him. “This little diner over here, Sam’s No. 3. You wanna come?”

So we headed over to the diner, my second time in 24 hours, to round out another GABF trip in the books.